The coded message is a lifeless thing, mummified and…

Woe to he who checkmates his opponents at last, only to discover they have been playing cribbage.

— Jedediah Berry

“All the world's a rube, and he who tries to prove otherwise will be the first to wake onstage, victim of our just ridicule.”

— Jedediah Berry

She was beautiful, in the quiet way that lonely, unnoticed people are beautiful to those who notice them.

— Jedediah Berry

“A hat is a snake is a lamp is a child is an insect is a clothesline hung with telephones.”

— Jedediah Berry

“There is no better way to understand your own motives and dispositions than by finding someone to act as your opposite.       T”

— Jedediah Berry

The world is unkind to the shoeless and frolicsome.

— Jedediah Berry

“It is not enough to say that you have had a hunch. Once written down, most such inklings reveal themselves for what they are:…

— Jedediah Berry

“The expert detective’s pursuit will go unnoticed, but not because he is unremarkable. Rather, like the suspect’s shadow, he will appear as though he…

— Jedediah Berry

A train will bring you back to the place you came from, but it will not return you home.

— Jedediah Berry

Love is the same as being lost,' says Jacques to the dark. 'Except you don't care that you're lost.

— Jedediah Berry

“A blatant falsification, brought to dwell perpetually in the Agency archives, a stain in the shape of words!”

— Jedediah Berry

I was to be buried inside my own creation, the better to keep its secrets. I will not tell you more, for your sake.…

— Jedediah Berry

“Unwin was tired, too. He had worn himself down—to nothing, nearly—with his cuts and corrections, his erasures and emendations. He was awake now, but…

— Jedediah Berry

“On Memory: Imagine a desk covered with papers. That is everything you are thinking about. Now imagine a stack of file drawers behind it.…

— Jedediah Berry

Could a dream kill a man? Could it strangle him where he sat sleeping?

— Jedediah Berry